1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a multifunction peripheral and a control method thereof. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to a multifunction peripheral and a control method thereof, which provides an input screen for a user to easily input various items of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multifunction peripheral performs not only the operation of a printer which prints out data transmitted from a host computer, but also operations of a facsimile, a scanner, a copier, electronic mail, and other conventional devices. In other words, a multifunction peripheral combines operations of separate unit terminals such as the facsimile, the scanner, the copier and the printer into a single system.
In addition to basic operations such as printing, copying, faxing and scanning, recent developments in multifunction peripheral technologies have enabled the multifunction peripheral to suit the customer's needs for more elaborate operations such as emailing or faxing scanned data.
Meanwhile, a user of the multifunction peripheral is required to input data, such as text, according to the operation that the user selects.
Accordingly, the multifunction peripheral employs an adaptive input device such as a touch panel which provides a plurality of input screens so that users can input information therethrough. For example, using the touch panel, a text input screen such as a keyboard screen may be displayed so that necessary information, including the text, can be input.
In the conventional multifunction peripheral, a main screen initially appears on the touch panel, and then as a user selects an item from the main screen, the screen changes to an input screen where the user can input data corresponding to the selected item. The user may select options or input job commands by repeating the above procedures.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are views illustrating input screens of a conventional multifunction peripheral. FIG. 1A illustrates a main screen for inputting data related to an email on the touch panel screen of the conventional multifunction peripheral. FIG. 1B illustrates the keyboard screen on the touch panel screen of the conventional multifunction peripheral.
Referring to FIG. 1A, the main screen is an emailing input screen that includes input items for email such as “To”, “CC”, “BCC”, “From”, “Subject”, and “Message”. As a user selects one of the input items, an input screen for inputting data for the selected one of the input items, such as the keyboard screen as illustrated in FIG. 1B, appears on the touch panel screen.
As the user inputs data to each of the input items using the keyboard screen, the user then presses a confirm key to confirm the entry of the selected one of the input items. The confirm key may be an “Enter” key 110 or a “Save” key 120, and the input data are then stored. After confirming the entry of the input data, the touch panel screen returns to the main screen. That is, the main screen including the stored input data appears on the touch panel screen.
If the user wants to input data regarding another one of the input items, the user selects a desired item from the main screen, and accordingly, the touch panel again turns to the keyboard screen to receive data input by the user.
As described above, it takes repeated screen changes between the main screen and the keyboard screen as well as repeated data inputs and storage until the user finally inputs all the required data for an email transmission. Furthermore, it takes the same number of screen changes, data inputs and storages until the user finally completes making all necessary corrections to previously input data. Therefore, it is quite inconvenient and time consuming to input the data to a conventional multifunction peripheral.